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Walk with me

Posted by on 03/10/2015 09:00

Walk with me

Worship isn’t something that happens just on a Sunday, it’s something that happens all day, every day.

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Every year our (growing) family help out at the annual St Johns pilgrimage to Staffordshire Showground for SoulSurvivor. A Christian festival where 4,000 young people descend upon a campsite and spend 5 days tormenting youth leaders with their inability to put up tents, cook and generally maintain an acceptable level of personal hygiene.Amongst the chaos, tired eyes and occasional rubbing someone up the wrong way…

PeopleMeetGOD

Morning and night we all gather in a large warehouse to share in praise and worship, listen to teaching from the bible, and pray for each other. It is always incredible.

I’ve been going to these things for more years than I have toes, and every year without fail I learn something new about who God is and what He is all about. I love seeing how our young people encounter God, how He loves them and makes sure they know it, and how He transforms lives – if you haven’t already, then you should talk to some of the folk that went this year, it was incredible.

Personally, I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I have been guilty of ‘using’ SoulSurvivor as a bit of a spiritual top-up each year. I arrive at the site ready to meet God and expecting Him to be present – and guess what… when we have high expectations of God, He always lives up to them, and frequently exceeds them (note to self, perhaps I need to have much higher expectations of Him every day). Having had an incredible time with great young people and youth leaders I return home feeling like I can take on the world with the Holy Spirit as my strength, but all too often, it’s a bit different when we get home. The fire can quickly die down and it’s back to the run-of-the-mill ordinary life that we have.I just don’t think this is how God wants us to experience Him. Yes, it’s great to have an amazing experience while we are away together, but it’s a bit like trying to fill your car up with petrol once a year and hoping that you’ll have enough fuel to last for the next 12 months. Believe me, it doesn’t work!

This year it’s been different. I’ve tried to spend time walking with God each day, sharing my thoughts and feelings, telling Him what’s really bothering me, listening to Him and spending time in worship of Him so much more frequently.Arriving at SoulSurvivor this year it didn’t feel like I had gone there to reconnect with God, but instead, I knew that He was already with me and that we were going there side by side to share another week together. My worship of Him there was no different from how I worship on a daily basis and that’s just brilliant!

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I think the same goes for how we approach church on a Sunday. If all we do is come to church for a spiritual ‘top up’ then we are missing out on a daily walk with the creator of the world. In the Garden of Eden, we see that God walked with Adam and Eve1. The creation story gives us some of the best images about how God wants to co-exist with humankind, so seeing Him walking with Adam and Eve there gives us a clue that He probably still wants to walk each day with us now. That is His invitation for each of us.

I know that I have much closer friendships with those people that I spend quality time with regularly compared to those people that I only see from time to time.Are we simply spending time with God when we sing intimate songs of worship in church, or are we inviting Him to share in every aspect of our lives?

------Perhaps it’s also time to notice that God is in fact walking alongside us each day whether we’ve asked Him to be there or not!